


we all need some healing (and it's going to be okay)

by babyweis



Series: breathing the air of a destroyed world [3]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Blind Character, M/M, Mentions of Death, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Recovery, Reunions, sad stuff but also not so sad stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 05:29:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16191050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babyweis/pseuds/babyweis
Summary: Minghao keeps his promise of taking Junhui back home.





	we all need some healing (and it's going to be okay)

**Author's Note:**

> here's the third part of this series!! if you haven't read the first two, i recommend to do so before reading this one, as it might be confusing.
> 
> it also might be confusing even if you have read the first two parts already, but don't worry! there's going to be either one or two more parts to this series before it's finished. i hope they will answer any questions that might arise.

"We need to continue a different way from here," the man in the passenger's seat says, glancing over his shoulder to look at them through the tiny window in the wall separating the front seat of the back of the van. "Give us the rest of the money and we'll drop you off."

Junhui watches how Minghao slips a hand underneath his jacket and pulls out a stack of cash, reaching through the window to give it to the man. The latter checks the amount before shoving it into his pocket and nodding at the driver, who pulls up to the side of the street.

Minghao throws his backbag over his shoulder, and Junhui mirrors the gesture, following him out of the dirty, worn-out van. The man in the passenger's seat gives them a nod and then the car takes off, and it's just the two of them standing in the middle of an abandoned street.

Outside of the walls.

In _Junhui's_ side of the city.

Barely able to contain his delight, he swirls around on his heels to look around them and deeply breathes in the familiar, fresh air. _God_ , it's _real_ \- he's really here. He's almost home.

_He's going to see Mingyu soon._

Trying to stop the dumb grin from forming onto his face, he gently brushes Minghao's arm with his fingers and starts walking. "Come on," he says, "it's this way. The walk should be about fifteen minutes, at most."

Fifteen minutes, at most, and then he's going to be with Mingyu and the others again.

Minghao follows him without a word, warily shooting short glances at their surroundings. It's understandable - he's not used to this. He has always lived inside the walls, under full supervision, walked streets full of rich people like himself. It's what worries Junhui - if Minghao will be able to get used to living outside of the comfort of safe apartment and warm showers.

It's funny, Junhui thinks, the way he's actually worrying about Minghao despite everything.

But after all, Minghao decided to help Junhui return to his home - without him, Junhui would most likely be stuck inside the walls forever. And on top of that, he succumbed to Junhui's request to come with him.

" _It's not like I have anything here, anyway,"_ Minghao had said as Junhui watched him pack two bags of food and clothes, _"I hate this fucking place."_

He was still putting up a front, and even now, as they are already outside of the walls, he refuses to let it down. Junhui kind of wants to tell him that he doesn't need to do that, but he doesn't dare to. He doesn't know what their relationship is at this point. Are they friends? Junhui is willing to bring Minghao to his family and make him a part of it. Are they family, already? Maybe not yet. But they _will_ be. Junhui has decided that much. He has forgiven Minghao, and wants him to see that even if they're not blood-related, it's possible to have a family who loves you.

 _Love_. When Junhui arrives home, he's going to make sure all of the others know just how much he loves them. He's going to make sure _Mingyu_ knows just how much he loves him. He's not going to leave home ever again - not when he's alive. They'll have to try and kill him before he's letting anyone take him away from home again.

Death is the only thing that is going to make him leave Mingyu ever again.

Junhui inhales deeply and picks up his pace, brushing strands of hair away from his face. He's going to be with Mingyu soon. He can feel it in his every step - _Mingyu, Mingyu, Mingyu_. God, he feels like running so he could get there as fast as he can, but he stops himself. Just a few more minutes. A few, long minutes.

He can see the park.

Gasping for air, he stops abruptly, Minghao reaching his side in a matter of seconds with his eyebrow raised. "What is it?"

"The park," Junhui whispers, glancing at Minghao for a brief moment before returning to stare at the way the Han river flows by the familiar view. "The park. We're almost there. We're almost _home_. We-"

He stops his rambling as quickly as he stopped walking earlier, his breath hitching in his throat as he stares at the familiar figures walking towards the river with buckets in their hands.

They're far, but Junhui recognizes them just as well as his own reflection.

Jisoo and Hansol.

Suddenly, he doesn't know what to do. He wasn't prepared for this, for meeting the others outside before going home. He wants nothing more than to run to them and hug the both of them with all his might, but his feet are stuck to the ground and he feels like he's stuck in a dream where he can't move a single limb.

"Your friends?" Minghao asks. Junhui nods, slowly. "Go to them, then."

And only then does Junhui go.

His backbag slips off his shoulders and drops down onto the ground as he starts running, his lungs and the muscles of his legs burning as he does. For once, he's not thinking about anything - he's completely moving by instincts, his body picking up the pace as if his life depended on it.

He sees Jisoo and Hansol turn around to look at them, and barely registers the shock on their faces before he's already running onto Jisoo, the both of them going crashing down to the ground together.

They're lying in an awkward position on the wet grass, but Junhui could literally care less - he pitifully wraps all of his limbs around Jisoo's smaller body as he cries, his face pressed against the older man's shoulder.

"Junhui," he hears Jisoo say, in a tiny, weak voice, and then again louder - and again, and again. At some point he also hears Hansol's voice, and reaches somewhere behind him until he finds Hansol's hand and pulls him down onto the ground with them.

"It's really you," Jisoo says, breathless, his hands grasping at Junhui's face to make him look up at him, "Fuck, what the _fuck_ , Junhui, we thought- are you okay?"

"I'm good," Junhui manages to say, glancing at Hansol, still holding onto the both of them with his hands, "Really, I- I've never been better."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Jisoo is obviously wary with Minghao, and Hansol even more so. Minghao is the same with them, Junhui notices, even though he appears pretty much unfazed by the two. Junhui has learned to read him well during the time they spent together inside the walls.

When they arrive at home, stepping inside the bar with Jisoo leading and Minghao tailing after everyone, Junhui bursts into another fit of tears. There's a lot of noise, familiar voices and familiar faces, familiar embraces as he's squeezed in between everyone's bodies and bombarded with questions. He even catches Wonwoo fighting back tears as the said male wraps himself around him, squeezing so hard Junhui almost passes out. He can hear Jisoo explain something to Seungcheol, the same things Junhui had explained to him and Hansol in the park, and then he hears Seungcheol exchange a few words with Minghao.

And then he hears Mingyu.

"Junhui?"

Junhui's legs nearly give out and he leans against Wonwoo's side for a second before swirling around to look towards the source of his voice, which is somewhere around the stairs.

"Hyung? _Junhui_ -"

There's a loud crashing sound of something hitting the floor. Jisoo and Seokmin sprint towards the stairs, and Junhui frees himself from all the arms around himself and stumbles after them, suddenly feeling very light-headed. He feels delighted about finally hearing Mingyu's voice again, but at the same time there's a heavy feeling in the back of his mind - why wasn't Mingyu down in the bar with the others? Is he hurt? Is there something wrong with his legs so he can't walk? Is-

There's a white piece of cloth wrapped around Mingyu's head, tied into a knot at the back and neatly covering his eyes. Junhui's stomach drops, and he suddenly doesn't know what to do, standing there on top of the stairway while watching as Jisoo and Seokmin help Mingyu up from the floor.

"Are you okay?" Jisoo asks. Mingyu doesn't respond.

"Hyung," he says, his breath ragged as he grasps at Jisoo's arm, "hyung, I heard Junhui, I'm sure I did, I..."

He trails off, and Jisoo and Seokmin both look at Junhui, their faces so full of pity that Junhui can't look at them for long. Instead, he looks at Mingyu, standing tall in between the two but still managing to look so small at that moment. Why have they covered his beautiful eyes?

A part of Junhui already knows why.

He takes a step forward, and then another, and then he's stumbling into Mingyu's arms, forcing the tears down until he can't anymore, and then he's just standing there and clinging onto Mingyu while crying.

"It's me," he chokes out, "it's me, I'm home, I'm so sorry..."

"Junnie?" Mingyu whispers, and as Junhui whispers, yes, he sobs and pulls him tighter into his own embrace, his hands trembling as he does so. "I- w-what, I don't- fuck, I _love you."_

"I love you too," Junhui tells him, so fast he almost chokes on his own words and tears, his lungs burning as he breathes in Mingyu's scent. "I love you, I missed you so much, I-"

"Me too," Mingyu breathes out, "I was so scared, I- how did you get back?"

"I'll tell you later," Junhui whispers, grasping tighter onto Mingyu's shirt, and the latter holds him closer without a protest.

"I wish I could see you," he says, letting out a sob, "God, Junhui, I-"

Junhui hushes as he fights back another burst of tears, removing his hands from Mingyu's shirt so he can bring them up to the younger's face instead. "It's okay," he whispers. "It's okay. I'm right here."

  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

  
It was a group of four older men, they tell him. They came from another city and had guns stolen from the people who lived in that city's centre. They got into a conflict and Chan and Mingyu were taken.

Mingyu had lost his eyes protecting Chan while they were kept as hostage.

Junhui feels guilty he wasn't there to protect the two of them. The others feel guilty because they couldn't protect them even if they were there. Chan feels guilty because Mingyu got hurt protecting him. Jisoo, on top of everything, still feels guilty Junhui was taken inside the walls and he couldn't do anything.

Minghao feels guilty for what he did to Junhui.

It's a continuous cycle, a never-ending guiltiness. Junhui feels it heavier on his shoulders with every passing day, and even if he talks about it, with Mingyu, with Jisoo, with Chan, even with Minghao, it doesn't seem to ease. He wonders what all of them have done wrong to experience something like this. It's not _fair_. Can't they all be happy for once?

They try, though.

Junhui holds Mingyu's hands every day and guides him around their home, changes the cloth around his head regularly and helps him eat. Mingyu tells him he feels useless. Junhui tells him he's _not_ , that he's beautiful and wonderful and Junhui and the others all love him very much. He only stops saying that after Mingyu tells him that he believes him.

One day Junhui asks Wonwoo what happened to the men who hurt Mingyu. Wonwoo looks at him, raw and honest - "We killed them," he says, "All of them."

Junhui doesn't sleep the next night. He lies awake with his head on Mingyu's chest and listens to his heartbeat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
It takes three whole weeks for all the tension to gradually start cooling down.

Mingyu is laughing a lot. He likes to run his fingers through Junhui's hair and press kisses to the back of his neck as he does so. He doesn't insist on hiding his face whenever the cloth is taken away from his eyes anymore.

Junhui also laughs a lot, now. He blames it on Mingyu. He's just so glad to see the younger getting better again. It's beautiful. Mingyu is so beautiful. Junhui would go around the world just to keep him always smiling.

Mingyu asks him a lot of questions regarding Minghao. Sometimes they are blunt and straightforward, sometimes less so. Junhui answers them all.

A question that leaves him silent for a moment is, "Did he hurt you?" and after a moment, he says, "No, he didn't."

It's a harmless lie. He knows how Mingyu and the others would react if they knew the truth, and it's not what he wants. He wants Minghao to be able to join their family without any more hardships than necessary.

"Why haven't you told them?" Minghao asks him one day, the two of them outside as Junhui took him with him to go get water.

"They wouldn't understand," Junhui says. His hair falls on his face when he crouches down to dip the bucket in the river. He should start tying it up.

"What is there to understand?"

Junhui stays silent for a moment before glancing up at Minghao, the latter standing next to him. "That you are a good person."

Minghao snorts and turns away from him.

"I'm not," he says, "and that's what they should know."

Junhui gets up and heaves his bucket into a cart, ready to protest, but Minghao throws a look at him over his shoulder.

"Don't say anything," he says. Junhui frowns. They walk back home in silence, Minghao pushing the cart, and only speak again when Seokmin comes to help them carry the buckets inside.

The next day Junhui is seated next to Jisoo in the bar, sharpening knives to kill time. Mingyu is taking a nap upstairs. He had a headache last night and barely got any sleep. Junhui is worried for him.

"Have you heard of the Stockholm Syndrome?" Jisoo suddenly asks him. Junhui raises an eyebrow and looks at him.

"Of course I have," he says. "Why?"

Jisoo shrugs, and then glances over to the other side of the bar. Junhui follows his gaze and finds Minghao sitting there, cleaning a handgun.

Realisation strikes him like a lightning, and his body actually jolts. "Hyung," he hisses, "that's not how it is."

"Is it not?" Jisoo asks, and Junhui is just so extremely _done_. He gets up from his spot on the floor and leaves the knives there, ignoring how Jisoo says I'm just worried as he makes his way outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
"Can't you try to get closer to the others?" Junhui asks, grasping at Minghao's shoulder. "They want to get to know you. Stop pushing them away."

"You really want me anywhere near them?" Minghao shakes his hand off. "What if I hurt them?"

"You won't," Junhui says, "I know that."

"Why are you so trusting?"

"I need to be in order to remain sane."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Six weeks.

It's cold and snowing outside. Junhui lies awake next to Mingyu again, pressed against his side on their huge makeshift bed as he watches the fire cracking in the corner of the room.

It's Hansol's turn to keep watch over the fire. Pretty much oblivious to the fact that Junhui is also awake, the younger is curled up close to the fire, two heavy blankets wrapped around his body. He looks tired.

Junhui is thinking of getting up to tell him that he can go to sleep now, Junhui can take over for his shift, but then he hears someone else getting up from the opposite edge of the bed.

Blinking, he watches how Minghao slowly makes his way to Hansol, only wrapped in a thin blanket in the coldness of the room.

"I can watch the fire," he says, "go to sleep."

Hansol seems as surprised as Junhui feels, looking up at Minghao with his brows knitted. "But-"

"You look like you need to sleep," Minghao interrupts him, and then sits down next to him. "Go."

"Fine," Hansol mutters, getting up from the floor. He seems to hesitate a little, but then he shakes one of the blankets off his shoulders and throws it at Minghao's lap instead. "At least take this."

They stare at each other for a minute, and then Minghao seems to sigh, obediently draping the blanket on his shoulders. Hansol, looking satisfied with this, makes his way to the bed.

It's cold, but Junhui's chest feels warm. He snuggles against Mingyu and closes his eyes, drifting off to deep sleep.

 

 

 


End file.
